Trying to Catch Up

There's a bit of pressure in having a blog. I haven't "blogged" in several days, and am feeling like I left the milk out of the refrigerator or something; and I have to get back to take care of it.  Okay. Strange analogy. What do you want from me?!  (I started to say "What do you want from me this late at night" and then I noticed it's only 6-something.  I am getting old. It seems so much later.)  

Okay, Monday is a blur. I know something happened I wanted to write about, but... Oh wait! I remember.  I didn't hear back from the young man I was supposed to see for therapy (we'll call him Marvin, though that is not his name). I had left him a message over the weekend to let me know what time he could come on Monday so we could schedule two sessions back-to-back, since he hadto have 11 sessions completed by Friday, January 9th (today).  I figured I'd see him at 12:30 on Monday. By late morning I gave up on him for that day and figured I'd continue with other things. He called at 11:30 and asked if we could meet at 12:30.  I told him I had made other plans, but then changed my mind and said, "Okay, I'll see you there at 12:30."  I walked in at 12:30 and Larry was on the phone with "someone" who was canceling at the last minute. Yes, you guessed it. It was Marvin. Turns out he didn't go to school that day, so he couldn't take the bus to the session; and his mother, he found out, had a flat tire when time came for him to be given a ride.  Here I am, dressed professionally, have all my stuff I need in my briefcase, ready to go, and he's not coming. I made the best of it, visited with Larry, made some CDs for Colleen, and then got the mail and came home.

Tuesday, I had my appointment with Dr. Niccole in Newport Beach to have my nose checked at 1 pm. It was the latest appointment they had, which made me nervous, because I wanted to get out of Orange County before the traffic got too bad.  While I was getting ready to go down the hill, though, I was reading the blog from the MacWorld San Francisco keynote address. This is where we find out what the latest and greatest new Mac stuff is going to be. This is where they announced the iPhone a couple of years ago.  All this got me inspired to take my computer, broken keys and all, to the Apple Store in Fashion Island since it's about half a mile from the doctor's office. I figured if I go early, I can have the computer looked at, buy a new battery for Kory and do some shopping for a dress for the Chamber's Red & White on Valentine's Day.  

Well, the Apple Store got a little expensive, and IT'S ALL KARYNN'S FAULT!  She said (when we saw her just before Christmas) that she couldn't believe I didn't have the latest Mac Book Pro.  To make a long story less long, I got the keys fixed (no charge) while I was there, and I also bought a new Mac Book Pro. Crazy, I know.  But I'm planning on doing what Karynn's doing with her "old" one and selling it on eBay (or somewhere)... that is, if Kory doesn't need it for something.  Anyway, I got to the doctor's appointment half an hour early and the waiting room was full. They didn't call me in to a room until 1:45 (45 mins late). I was trying not to stress too much; after all, it doesn't help anything. I got in the room and sat on that chair that might be comfortable if you're a mannequin. And I sat. And I sat. I sat for about 45 minutes, though they did come in once to take pictures of my nose. Mind you, the work was all internal, but because this is a cosmetic surgery office, they take before and afters of everything.  I kept telling myself the wait would be worth it, because he would undoubtedly remove any blockage or obstructions that were causing me some of the challenges I felt as I tried to enjoy my new nasal passages.  (I'm trying to keep this description as pleasant as possible.)  He finally came in, shook my hand, asked how everything was going, shined a flashlight up my nose and said, "Everything looks great!  Give it another three months to completely heal!"  THREE MONTHS MORE?  I thought it was only TWO MONTHS all totaled!  Anyway, nice guy, like the doctor a lot; but my expectations were kind of thrown out the window. Before I knew it, I was thanking him for the entire five minutes he spent with me.  By the time I got home, it was 5:30. It had been a seven-hour trip, boiled down to five minutes.  Okay, to be honest, I'm leaving out of that equation the hour or so at the Apple Store and the Jones New York dress and jacket I got at Macy's for the Chamber thing.  That was part of the seven hours too.   It's just that nothing changed with my nose!  Not yet.  Three more months. Ugh.

Okay, then Wednesday, my niece, Corrie, had an appointment in San Bernardino and planned on coming up afterward. I had rescheduled "Marvin"'s appointment to do all three of his final sessions on Wednesday afternoon, so she got here while I was gone with him. Pluto was here to greet her, though. She went with us to Grandpa Avarell's birthday party in Crestline. Kim and Marilyn were here from Fresno, and we had pizza and lasagna and a really nice time. One of the funniest things was that every time I'd introduce her to someone in the family, I'd say, "This is my niece, Corrie."  Almost everyone either said, "Kory?" or "You're kidding!" (because of the name).  It was funny.

After we left Crestline, Kory dropped us off in Blue Jay at a meeting. A young woman we knew from church gave us a ride home. It was a really great evening. Kory went to sleep shortly after that, and Corrie and I stayed up until 11 just talking.

Thursday morning, more visiting with Corrie. While sitting around the living room, I went through my mail from the day before, which included a year-end "Thank you" letter from the doctor I had just gone to see (the one who reconstructed my nose).  I mentioned what I was looking at to Corrie and soon thereafter threw the envelopes on the coffee table. A few minutes later, Corrie picked the one from the doctor up and said, "Oh. Cosmeticare.  I know a Dr. Niccole from Cosmeticare."  (That's my doctor.)  Turns out, she used to hang out with his two sons when she went to high school in Huntington Beach, which is where he lives.  She knows him and his family well!  Amazing.

We also made a quick trip to Radio Shack where an encounter with a salesman went something like this:  I said, "We're looking for 800 firewire cable." He said, "Do you want 4-pin or 6-pin?"  "Just 800 firewire. I'll know it when I see it."  "What kind of a Mac do you have?" he asks. "The new 15-inch, which only uses 800."  Then he starts in on something like this:  "I have a Mac too. Some of them use 4-pin and some use 6-pin..." and I think he started describing the physical characteristics of the connectors or something.  I told him I was very familiar with Macs and had been using them for more than 15 years (Corrie later commented that it had been much longer, and we figured out it's been 22, yikes!). At one point, during this guy's soliloquy, Corrie said something like, "Okay, let's go." I knew she had lost her patience with the guy, as had I. I just hadn't given up the ghost yet. I told him I knew what the connector looked like and asked him to show me what he had, which he did.  They were not 800 firewire cables; they were 400 firewire camera cables. So we left. 

I had wanted to show Corrie the house Kory built on Manitoba. We pulled into the driveway, which was half covered in snow (the half that was in the shade). We went in and looked at the house and were leaving in just enough time to get Corrie back to the North Bay house so she could get on the road for a rehearsal she had in Pasadena at 6 p.m.  I decided it would be a good idea to turn around in the driveway (remember the one that was half covered in snow? -- yes, that's the one).  We got stuck.  And I do mean stuck.  No shovel, no gloves, just stuck. I pulled out a Geodon doorhanger that was made out of hard plastic that I had in my car for some reason, and Corrie used that to dig some snow out from behind the front tires. Then she used her impressive 105-pound (I'm guessing) frame to try to push the car out from the front. Didn't work. I had no signal, but she did, so she used her Blackberry to text Kory asking him to help or to send someone to help. He soon texted back that he was sending help.

About 10 minutes later, he pulled up in front of the house.  My hero to the rescue!!  (It really is a very comforting, secure feeling to know he's there for me.) He brought a couple of shovels with him, used them for less than a minute and said, "Try it now." And we were off!  Corrie grabbed her stuff, said a quick goodbye, and took off for L.A.

Now... I neglected to mention Twitter.  Corrie Twitters. And Twitters. At just about every step of the way, her fingers began tip-tapping quickly across the Blackberry keys to tell the world of our adventures. So after she left, I went to Twitter and "joined." I'm certain I'm way too old for this, but I did it anyway. About 20 minutes later, if that, Corrie called from the road and said something like, "I've got the coolest Auntie ever" (at least I heard something like that). She had gotten a Twitter announcement about me, apparently.  Pretty funny.

And that finally brings us to today, Friday. Not a very productive day, but it was good (so far). This morning I spent AN HOUR on the phone with "Marvin" 's mediator (the person who had sent him for counseling).  He and his partner have the Restorative Justice Center in Upland, where they keep people (mostly juveniles) out of the court system by doing mediation with the victim and the offender to arrange non-jail-time consequences. (Marvin had beaten another kid up at school because he was talking "s _ _ _" about Marvin's girlfriend.)  This guy is interested in doing divorce mediation and may use me as a resource, since I so enjoy couples counseling. Hopefully if the counseling works, the mediation becomes unnecessary.

Anyway, (I've noticed I say "anyway" a lot... sorry about that), Kory and I are having our "sacred time" together, as we do every Friday starting at noon. Nothing in particular is on the agenda, other than time dedicated to being together. We went to Rite-Aid to buy an old home remedy for my nose that Gisela Schmeidel told me about on Sunday. We got vitamins, dog toys, picture frames, windshield washer fluid and rechargeable batteries.  We forgot the nose thing. So Kory, bless his heart, went back to get it and we're about to watch a movie.

Whew!  It's a lot of work keeping up on this!  I doubt seriously that anyone will actually read this. So, please do me a favor. If you've read this? Will you send me an e-mail or post a comment that you actually did?  I owe you if you read all this!!  Thanks for taking an interest and for caring.

Bye for now!